Social Knowledge Management in Action

Traditionally, knowledge management initiatives in organizations have focused on the conversion of tacit into explicit knowledge with the goal to capture and store this knowledge in repositories. Many of these attempts to manage knowledge have failed, one possible reason for that being the negligence of the social context of knowledge work. Offering an alternative understanding of knowledge, the knowledge-in-practice perspective suggests knowledge to be represented, created and translated through the work practices and the social context that individuals interact in. In recent years, companies have started to use internal social networking platforms, i.e. Enterprise Social Networks, to support collaboration and knowledge sharing. Based on a literature review, this chapter discusses how Enterprise Social Networks can help enable and understand knowledge work. The results of this chapter are hoped to inspire the dialogue between research and practice and inform future investigations in the field of Enterprise Social Networks.

Previous studies have revealed that motivating people to share knowledge is an important challenge in knowledge management (KM) in companies. Further, the recent growing use of enterprise social media (ESM) for KM creates an unprecedented exploration direction for business managers and researchers. A more transparent insight into ESM attributes and engagement between attributes and participants’ motivations can be developed by more focused studies. This study examines how certain attributes of ESM platforms can significantly enhance participants’ perceived benefits and costs to a greater extent than conventional KM systems. Results of synthesized studies reveal that individuals’ perceived benefits and costs of participation throughout ESM are influenced by three attributes of social media technology: entirety, visibility, and informality. We argue that these attributes of ESM systems can support some benefits and diminish some costs of knowledge sharing. Employees’ motivations are accordingly boosted by making participants visible, creating an environment for informal interactions, and developing integrated knowledge exchange channels.

This study provides a comparative analysis on the relative importance of social information and communication systems (SICS) to acquire and assimilate knowledge in the organizational context. Theoretically, we relate these knowledge processing stages to Potential Absorptive Capacity (PAC). As the usage of SICS to manage knowledge in organizations is becoming common practice, we need to understand which SICS support what kind of knowledge processing activity best. For this purpose, we developed a research model linking a SICS taxonomy with multiple criteria feeding into PAC. Based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), we allowed experts affiliated with different organizational units to assess the relative importance of different SICS in regard to their organizational value for each assessment dimension. Our exploratory findings, which we interpret and discuss using a technology affordance lens, indicate that SICS priorities vary across organizational units and knowledge processing stages. This study offers valuable insights for conducting effective knowledge-acquisition and assimilation practices in organizations.

According to many scholars, the characteristics of the new web 2.0 technologies (like e.g. flexibility of contents and knowledge domains, cost efficiency, openness and easy interaction with other systems) make them particularly suitable as a knowledge management (KM) tool for small enterprises. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence (although still little, at present) shows that there are some open questions about how small businesses should implement these new technologies. This chapter compares and contrasts two possible approaches to the introduction of web 2.0 applications as a KM tool: a “top-down” approach, where the application is implemented based on the strict adherence with the top-management views, and a “bottom-up” approach, where the system gradually develops thanks to the initiatives coming from the user level. It also provides real-life case study evidence of the introduction and use of a web 2.0 KM system in the context of a small company. The case-study helps to understand that, due to the nature itself of web 2.0 systems and of the kind of knowledge that these systems may help to share, a successful implementation needs to fit the real needs of end-users. Therefore, a bottom-up approach (where the actual requirements of the system and of the underlying KM processes are derived from the user needs) can be more appropriate than a top-down approach (where users, processes and technologies are designed and planned in advance based on a model of what the company should be). This can be especially true in the case of small companies.

This chapter explores the benefits and challenges that Web 2.0 tools present to knowledge workers and proposes a framework of personal knowledge management (PKM) skills to foster effectiveness in Web 2.0 settings. Research into Web 2.0 in the enterprise has focused primarily at the organizational level. Although the importance of individual knowledge workers is well known, there is limited understanding of the issues that Web 2.0 tools present for PKM and the related skills required. Our study aimed to address this gap. We interviewed six individuals from multinational software companies—three software developers and three middle managers. Our analysis combined an inductive approach with use of Avery et al. (Personal knowledge management: Framework for integration and partnership. ASCUE 2001 Conference Proceedings, North Myrtle Beach, SC, 2001) PKM skills model. Key perceived benefits of Web 2.0 were time saving, timeliness, improved collaboration, ability to locate knowledge holders, and improved communication across hierarchies and silos. Participants highlighted five main challenges: unreliable information quality, inequality of participation, lack of knowledge about the nature of technology, security risk, and fragmentation of information. They combined eight PKM skills to militate the challenges and realize the benefits of Web 2.0. We propose an adaptation of Avery et al. (Personal knowledge management: Framework for integration and partnership. ASCUE 2001 Conference Proceedings, North Myrtle Beach, SC, 2001) model that identifies eight PKM skills relevant to Web 2.0 and a framework for understanding how these promote individual performance in the context of Web 2.0. While the need for some traditional skills appears to be reduced, we found that two additional PKM skills were critical: creating and curating information and exercising time control.

The analysis of user behavior in online communities is a prominent topic in social media research. As such, user behavior is often analyzed using a set of metrics that describe the user’s participation behavior and structural position in the social network. Yet, for Enterprise Social Networks (ESN), i.e. internally used social networking platforms, such research is lacking. While prior studies have found users to engage in knowledge-intensive interactions, e.g. discussing and developing new ideas, little is known about how to conceptualize and measure ESN user behavior. Being able to measure user behavior, however, is an important prerequisite for the identification of knowledge management-related roles in the context of ESN.

Against this backdrop, in this chapter we derive 30 metrics that characterize the participation behavior, message content and structural position of ESN users of an Australian professional services firm. Based on a factor analysis, we identify nine distinct dimensions of ESN user behavior: Social dispersion, engagement, focus, information sharing, discussing, information seeking, response time, receiving information, and tagging. With this research we contribute to the literature by transferring concepts and methods of organization science and social media research to an ESN context. Further, our approach forms the basis for the identification of different types of knowledge actors, which might ultimately help to improve organizational knowledge transparency.

One language and its culture die every 2 weeks. If nothing is done, half of the over 7,000 languages spoken today could disappear by the end of this century. Only 600 or so languages with large numbers of speakers (more than 100,000) may survive. The current state of language endangerment highlights the need for revitalizing endangered languages for the survival of culture, diversity, and knowledge.

Current language revitalization efforts, approaches and systems have been fragmented and predominantly focused on language learning. An integrated and holistic approach needs to be adopted for the preservation, curation, transmission and usage of endangered languages and the culture embedded therein. The strengths of social media and the functionality of knowledge management systems have the potential to revitalize endangered languages.

In this chapter we first introduce language revitalization, social media, and knowledge management systems. This is followed by a discussion on how social media driven knowledge management systems can be leveraged to preserve, curate, transmit, discover and ultimately revitalize endangered languages. Secondly we compare and synthesize literature on existing language preservation and knowledge management systems with a particular focus on their support for societal collaboration. Finally, this chapter proposes the design and implementation of “Save Lingo”, a holistic socially driven knowledge management system for preserving and revitalizing endangered languages. We instantiate and validate the system in the context of Te Reo Māori, which is spoken by the indigenous population of New Zealand.